When Ailinda Sawe finished her coursework in
fashion design in 1983, she could have stayed in Manchester, England, to
work. Instead, she returned home to Tanzania. “Some of my people are
not even dressed,” she told friends in England. “I’m going back to dress
my people.”(click below to read more)
She incorporated the traditional designs of some of Tanzania’s more
than 120 tribes into her work and, in doing so, transformed the kanga,
a rectangular piece of material that’s a wardrobe staple in East
Africa, into haute couture. “To know that our people were so rich in
costumes, jewelry – what they did with their hair, with their skin – so
many designs, it was amazing,” says Sawe, whose company is called Afrika
Sana, Swahili for “truly Africa.”
She also founded a nonprofit, Mtoto wa Afrika, to bring art and culture to children.
In 2009, after visiting the Dar-es-Salaam-Mzizima club to ask for
support, she decided to join. “I found a fellowship where every nation,
every color, all of humanity can be like a family,” she says. “I’ve got a
place where I can serve my people and serve the world.”
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